How to reformat Maxtor Shared Storage II for Mac Extended format

[butterflyboy]

Seems like Maxtor Shared Storage II (MSS II) can't accept beyond certain filename length because of certain thing called FAT32 compatibility issues. As such I can't copy most of my files! From my countless hours of research, I need to reformat the drive to a Mac Extended format to be able to make use of my drive. A few things concerns me though:

1. Can I reformat a server? i.e. via my Mac when I connect it to my Mac since MSS II is connected via an ethernet cable

2. How can I connect MSS II to my Mac so that it appears as a drive? It has 2 USB 2.0 but in order for me to hook it up to my Mac I'll need to have a USB 2.0 cable which have both ends similar right? I there any?

3. If and when I'm able to reformat to a Mac Extended version will all the capability of the RAID and networking via the ethernet still works?

Cheers!
Y

 

[CanadaRAM]

No. Network Attached Storage devices are really just small servers - the hard disk must be formatted to the format the embedded linux (or other) OS supports. You cannot reformat it into a Mac format.

Very few NAS devices support Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) natively. You are addressing the drive probably as a SMB share, just like a fileserver (because, well, it is one). This is fine, because OS X supports SMB - however you'll have the same naming convention issues that you would have on any SMB server. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107032

RAID is completely out of the question. This is a network connected drive. It will only appear on your Mac as a networked drive, not as a directly connected drive.

I don't know this specific Maxtor model. Sometimes, the USB ports are for chaining another drive off of the NAS as a network.

If it does operate as a desktop mountable drive when plugged in by USB, then that's fine, but if you reformat the drive, you will almost certainly destroy its ability to act as an Ethernet connected device.

The Maxtor page refers to the USB ports as "expansion ports... that you can attach a printer to" which stropnly implies they are not intended for direct connection.

Maxtor Product Page - including a link to the - <cough> - owner's manual --

 

[butterflyboy]

Oh no! Thanks a lot for the information. That means I'm so screwed!!! . Instead of becoming a great convenience it now becomes a great dump ****!. This would mean thet I'm not able to use the drive as a server to store my files and images and iTunes Library as well but since it can't copy those files what am I to do? Why didn't MAXTOR indicate this significant issue clearly in the marketing materials?

I believe I'm not the only one facing this problem. I've yet to hear something from Maxtor... They made it sound so easy and convenient that we can conveniently use it as a media centre and blah blah blah but they never did highlight the clauses and issues pertaining to this problems.

I was wondering if it works if I were to copy the file via a Windows platform instead. After all I am using intel iMac. What if I were to boot up on Windows XP and try copying those files. Will it work? It seems to me that this FAT32 thingy is a PC issue. Isn't there any software out there trhat can help to resolve this problem?

Cheers,
Y